castleinthemist | 02

Entry tags:

02 - open

Toph knew she found the courtyard through various senses. She could smell the fresh air, hear the birds, and feel the warm sunlight and cool breeze. The hard stone from the castle faded into softer walkway stone as she moved out into the yard. When her feet touched the grass, she smiled to herself. No longer was the resonance of vibration from the earth surging out and back at her with all its strength. Instead, it met resistance and the grass muffled her senses as it tickled her feet, creating a sort of static for her until it gave way under her soles to let foot meet soil and allow the reverberations communicate to her nearly half a second later than solid ground.

It was a strange sensation, but she welcomed it. It calmed her, and she continued to smile while she moved to what she thought was a nice spot.

She breathed calmly and evenly as she took her stance. One move, another, and then a third, and a perfectly shaped chaise rose up from the ground. She felt proud of herself as she moved to it and lay down, body lying comfortably against the contour of the grass-covered reclining seat.

Once decidedly comfortable, Toph pulled a flask from her belt and took a drink from it. Nice, cool water. She'd stolen the idea from another castle inhabitant and had made one out of a chunk of metal ripped from her bed frame. He used his for naughty juice; she used hers for water.

Toph felt a little guilty. Most of the castle was trying to figure out how to get out of there. She, though, wasn't putting so much effort into it. Sure, she wanted to leave, but what could she do? She'd promised a new friend that she wouldn't go far without eyes to help her spot the monsters she couldn't detect. While she wanted to do her part of the exploring and searching for a way home, she didn't want to be useless in a fight against a flying shadow with claws.

There were very few times that Toph would admit her blindness to be a hindrance. A skirmish against the monsters that moved without contact or sound was one of those very few times.

"I'll just wait for a friend," she told no one before closing her eyes and laying her head back against her arm.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Duo was getting more and more irritated with his situation every day. He wanted to go home. He wanted to sleep in a warm bed in a room that wasn't made of stone. He wanted some goddamned central heating, and a meal that didn't taste like it was pureed from garbage. Bad garbage.

The fruit from his double had sated some of his anger a few days before, but his birthday had been less than enjoyable given that he still spent it sulking over hard alcohol and waking to a hang over the next morning. But it only went so far to make him less grouchy, and he was spending quite a bit of time grumbling to himself and kicking at stones uselessly.

Fresh air was at least a luxury he didn't get on the colonies, and he spent more of his time outside than in when he could help it. The court yards seemed to be devoid of shadow attacks most of the time, making him less wary of those areas than he was of others.

Swinging a stick loosely in one hand, he headed out to the very one that Toph inhabited currently, not noticing the girl at all as he stopped to take in a deep breath of salty sea air. The distant crash of waves and cawing birds was the only sound that reached his ears as his braid was lifted by the wind, end fluttering at his back.

All the natural beauty there couldn't make him hate that damn castle any less.

The grass on her chaise and on the ground beneath him, and the distance created enough disruptive noise to dull her senses. While Toph was alerted to and thus quite aware of the young man's presence, for all she knew he was just his short-haired counterpart, finally meeting her like he said he would and yet hadn't. Her back was facing him at the time, but that didn't matter to her.

She raised her hand in the air, waving it to catch his attention.

"Hey! Space Brain! Over here!" She yelled at him, sure he was able to hear her loud mouth even half way across the courtyard.

She sat up and waited his approach.

"You know, when most people say they're sleeping in a bit, they usually mean mid morning, not high noon," she scolded before taking another drink.

Duo jumped at the voice and whirled around, but didn't reply right away even after his eyes fell on the one yelling at him. He was too busy staring at the girl, wondering why she was calling at him like she knew him. He sure as hell didn't know her.

"Uhh... I... think you got me confused for some one else, chicky. Sorry," he called back, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Chicky?!" She repeated, sounding indignant as she sat up quickly and got to her feet before stomping towards him. Normally, she'd be mad at a name like that, and she actually surprised herself that she WASN'T as mad as normal.

Maybe Iroh had gotten to her. Maybe she'd matured. Or maybe the castle was just sucking the life out of her. Whatever it was, she didn't feel like completely snapping on him, but she wasn't going to just let him get away with 'chicky.'

Blinded, as it were, by annoyance, she approached him. Her fists were clenched and her head dropped, shoulders square and chest struck like she was ready to tear him apart. It might have been terrifying, if she wasn't... Toph-sized.

"Listen, Dunderhead," she barked, reaching up to poke him in the chest with a finger. "You-"

She caught herself as she realized something. A few things, really. Height, build, stature, mass, balance, even the way the contact returned to her as it surged through him and back to her. It was only then she remembered Duo's words.

'If you ever happen to meet another guy who sounds exactly like me? That's my double. he's a little younger but you can rely on him to. Tell him I said so.'

Oh. Whoops.

"... you ... are not who I thought you were..." She told him, backing off and turning away to hide the heat on her cheeks.

"... sorry."

"Eehh?!" Duo yelped at the sudden bark, reeling back a few steps as she advanced on him. He knew he could piss people off pretty quickly without really trying, but that had to be a record!

But then she stopped and spoke her realization out loud, and it finally snapped in to place for him as well.

"... you were waitin' for my double, yeah? Sorry... bad timin' on my part, I guess," he grumbled, looking away at the sudden awkward tension in the air.

"You, uh, you're pretty similar," she offered, though she was quite positive he already knew that.

When she felt at least most of her blush die down, she turned to him sideways, one ear on him and the other on the rest of her surroundings, face downcast but still speaking clearly enough to be heard.

Her arms were folded over her chest and she was leaning most of her weight on one leg.

"You haven't seen him around, have you?"

"... yeah..."

He did, but it still didn't fail to make him a little uneasy for a moment or two. It wasn't that he disliked his double or the idea of it, it was just very odd and a not entirely easy concept to get over quickly.

At her question, he shook his head slowly, frowning a little.

"Not since last night. I usually see him around in the morning but he mighta ducked out before me or something..."

"Crud," she pouted, falling back and slumping in a small throne made of cool, solid rock that rose to meet her half way. She propped one hand on an arm rest and used the other to dig for gold in one nostril.

"If you do happen to run into him, tell him Toph's going to Bend him into the side of the castle."

"... going to--... yehknow what, I'm not even gonna ask..." Duo grumbled, scratching at the back of his head again with a sigh. All of the awkward, Toph. All of it.

Maybe if Toph were a little older, she would have caught what he said. Maybe if she'd grown up in less-than-high-society, out on the streets where girls her age were doing things like THAT just to get enough coins for a meal. However, what he meant went straight over her head and she only turned to face his direction with a cocked eyebrow.

"Are all of the spare Duos this weird, or is it just you?"

Then it was probably a good thing he stopped himself part way.

The 'spare' comment earned an indignant sputter from him, voice actually going up nearly an entire octave.

"'Spare'?! Excuse me, pipsqueak?!"

"'Chicky,' and now 'Pipsqueak?!'"

She slammed her fists into the throne, crumbling it to rubble behind her. She didn't look at him, only pointing at him with as much force as she could. Again, if she wasn't the perfect height for his armrest, she would have probably been kind of scary.

"You need to learn some manners, Loudmouth!"

If he hadn't been angry and irritated, he might have noticed that happened. Or rather, he would have noticed AND taken in to account that their little tiff could get ugly very quickly.

But he didn't, and he just snarled back at the smaller girl.

"Loudmouth? Please! I wasn't the one who started a conversation by yelling out 'hey Space Brain!'! If anyone is the loudmouth here it's YOU! ... shorty!"

The last part, of course, added in just to be a further thorn in her side.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject